Waltham, MA (PRWEB) July 22, 2009 — To inspire a new generation of students to think about the benefits of healthcare software, Claricode is starting the Claricode Medical Software Essay Scholarship program which will award a total of $5000 in scholarships this year. Five industry experts have generously donated their time to review the essay finalists:

* Matthew Holt is the publisher of “The Health Care Blog” which has been called “a must read blog” by the Wall Street Journal. * Douglas J. McClure, MIM manages technology operations, technology research and development, and finance for the Center for Connected Health (CCH) at Partners HealthCare. * Brigitte Piniewski, MD is the Director of BioWellness Research at Oregon Medical Laboratories and Co-Chair of the Continua Health Alliance, Wellness Solutions Working Group. * Neil Rouda is the President/CEO of MedTech Publishing which produces award winning print and digital publications such as Healthcare IT News, NHINWatch.com, MobileHealthWatch.com, and Healthcare Finance News. * Ken Tubman is the CEO of Claricode, a growing company specializing in the custom development of medical software.

“We are extremely pleased that so many industry leaders donated their time to inspire students to learn more about healthcare software and its benefits. We are honored to have such a well-rounded team of experts help judge these essay submissions.” said Andrew Needleman, Founder of Claricode.

The Claricode Medical Software Essay Scholarship will award annual scholarships of $2500, $1500, and $1000. The 2009 essay topic is: “How can medical software improve the future?” With the HITECH act and other pending legislation, the US healthcare IT industry will need to expand its workforce dramatically to fulfill the promise of medical software.

“I am excited to be able to reward students for creative ideas about healthcare software that can improve healthcare quality and reduce costs,” said Douglas McClure, Partners HealthCare Center for Connected Health.

“If we’re able to inspire one student to think about medical software and healthcare IT, then we will have been successful” said Ken Tubman, CEO of Claricode, “I’m looking forward to seeing the benefits of medical software from the students’ perspectives.”

About the Claricode Medical Software Essay Scholarship: The Claricode Medical Software Essay Scholarship awards a total of $5000 each year to the best three eligible 500-1000 word essays from full-time college/university students. The finalists will be announced in late November 2009, and the winners will be announced in January 2010. The complete medical software scholarship information is at http://www.claricode.com/scholarship/

About Claricode: Claricode provides medical software development to health care providers, medical device manufacturers, and medical software companies. The company works with a variety of premier medical organizations on novel applications that improve quality of life and lower the overall cost of patient care, creating e-health solutions for medication management, e-prescribing, home care, Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) telemedicine, payment reconciliation and more. For more information, visit the company’s web site at www.claricode.com.